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jerks. Winston bent his knees, crouching and trying to hold balance.
The crowd gasped in unison, many began moaning and a child screamed. After five
or six seconds, the tremors stopped.
    ‘Quiet, quiet!’ The shout came again from
the ex-guesthouse. Winston thought he may have heard a muffled call back but it
might’ve just been the earth settling and the rain seemed heavier making it hard
to tell.
    Dick was the first to regain composure. ‘Is
anyone’s phone working?’ he asked without any effort whatsoever to lower his
voice.
    Leroy looked confused. ‘Phone?’
    Jean stared quizzically at Dick as though
she recognized him. ‘Are you on a cooking program?’
    Dick stood up the front beside Jean and
Leroy and told the group they’d had a decent little earthquake. His boofy, wet
hair was slicked back in a way that reminded Winston of those old Nazi war
documentaries. Dick reckoned, from feel of it, they’d been unlucky enough to be
smack on the epicenter. More than likely it was confined to this particular area
of the Blue Mountains. Seven point five, maybe eight on the Richter. Ambo’s won’t
be far off even if they have to come from Sydney. If there’ve been no more
tremors in the next couple of hours, everyone should be right to go back to their
houses and get out of this damp. He paused and smiled reassuringly.
    ‘We’re taking Asha here, then we have to
collect some others who need help down at the visitor centre and we’re going to
the hospital. We’ll let the hospital know you’re all here and they’ll be along
in a jiffy.’
    Asha lay on the road with her left leg twisted
around ninety degrees, the knee grossly swollen and purple. She couldn’t stand
on it and her face was contorted into a painful grimace. ‘We really have to get
her to a doctor,’ pleaded Jean. ‘Another fellow has a hurt back and can’t feel
his feet, so I’m not sure if we should even move him . . . but
laying out in the rain can’t be good either, can it?’
    ‘I’ll have a look at him,’ offered Dick. ‘Where’s
your van?’ he asked Leroy, who pointed his torch up the hill. The square
outline of the vehicle shimmied through the rain, barely visible and parked
dead centre of the road. Dick swung his penlight into Asha’s distressed face. ‘Think
you two can get her loaded up?’
    Winston and Leroy splashed uphill to the van.
The barking started again and when Leroy pulled open the creaky rear door, the
dog immediately jumped down.
    ‘ Rooof! Rrrrrooof! ’ Before Winston
could step back he found two hairy paws on his chest and a furry face stretched
up to check him out. He pushed the dog away but not before giving it a quick
scratch behind the ears.
    The back seats of the Volkswagen had been
removed to make way for a double mattress which rested on a home-made raised
platform. The bed completely filled the interior behind the front seats. A
small gas stove was bolted to one wall, clothes heaped untidily everywhere and
the side windows blacked out with paint.
    Leroy began unstrapping a surfboard from the
roof. ‘We can use this to carry her over.’
    Getting her loaded up wasn’t as easy as
anticipated. With Leroy at the front and Winston at the back, the board tilted
sharply. Asha gripped the sides while Winston raised his arms and Leroy lowered
his but there was still no way to stop her sliding. For Winston, it was either Asha’s
legs akimbo around his face, or take her foot in his head. He took the foot
well, forehead thrust out like Ronaldo driving a fifty meter header into the
net with thirty seconds to go in a cup final and scores tied. Winston most certainly
didn’t want a face full of Asha’s legs akimbo.
    They hoisted her into the van. Leroy reached
back and grabbed Winston’s end then pushed. The board slid in as far as the
fins then she managed to shuffle off onto the bed. Cushioned against Leroy’s dirty
clothes she looked comfortable enough, but stretched out diagonally like that took
up most